According to the BA website, between 25th January and 24th March they are laying on three extra flights a week LHR - BOM bringing the total to ten rotations.
I thought that the bilateral which has just be renegotiated meant that BA couldn't add extra flights to BOM despite being desparate to do so. If they have got extra slots why aren't these flights permanent considering they did just bid to go double daily to BOM? Have these slots been leased from AI like the VS flights to DEL?

Anyone know anything about them?

cheers,
-Sam

source: http://www.britishairways.com/travel/askbainter/public/en_gb?prim=custsupp (the question entitled: "increased service to Bombay")

India and the UK have a limited open-skies agreement meaning that for a few months of the year these flights can be added. The reason you don't see VS or BD partaking is that it's not cost effective to open a station for 3 months of the year.

Right, but that's part of the 10 flights Virgin were granted, right? Whereas these BA flights are only permitted during the seasonal Open Skies period. BA's additional MAA and BLR flights won't start until later in 2005.

The reason you don't see VS or BD partaking is that it's not cost effective to open a station for 3 months of the year.

If I'm not mistaken, during the limited open skies period, airlines are allowed to reinforce frequencies to existing stations, but are not allowed to open new stations. So, apart from its being not cost effective to open up an new station for just a couple of months, it would also not comply with India's open skies regulations.